Inao: Princes Of The Universe
by EmeraldWings90
Summary: The mission after Unending is just another everyday mission to save the galaxy... Or not. Because something Daniel tried very hard not to think about for the last eleven years is going to be revealed, and it's going to change everything.
1. Chaotic Thoughts

Inao: Princes Of The Universe

Written by: Wings90

Category: Action/Adventure, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Drama, Romance, Supernatural/Sci-Fi, Crossover  
Rating: PG-13  
Warnings: violence  
Spoilers: it starts after Unending so... everything up to that point. But I don't read spoilers so nothing for the movies.

Summary: The mission after Unending (10x20) is just another everyday mission to save the galaxy... Or not. Because something Daniel tried very hard not to think about for the last eleven years is going to be revealed, and it's going to change everything.

Author's Notes: This is my first fic, but don't let that stop you. This is a crossover too, but don't let that stop you, you don't need to know what kind of a crossover it is to read it, I'l explain everything. English isn't my native language but don't let that stop you either. It's going to have canon ships, mainly Daniel/Vala because I need to get them together, but also Jack/Sam because I'm convinced they're together since the fishing trip to Minnesota. But don't let that stop you either. That's not going to be the main plotline, and I think (hope) it'll be worth reading even if you're not a shipper. Transcript is from GateWorld. Oh yeah, and I'll be putting this up in Hungarian, too. I just need to translate it first.

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Chapter 01 - Chaotic Thoughts

LANDRY: Dial it up, Walter.

HARRIMAN: Yes, sir.

(STARGATE ACTIVATING)

HARRIMAN: Chevron one encoded.

MITCHELL: That is how we're supposed to travel light years across the galaxy to other planets.

HARRIMAN: Chevron two encoded.

MITCHELL: You know, I'd like to think that I handled myself well, but I imagine that I went a bit crazy, cooped up on that ship for so long.

HARRIMAN: Chevron three encoded.

DANIEL: You know, Teal'c did tell me some things I learned from the Asgard knowledge base.

VALA: He did? Like what?

DANIEL: Oh, boy. What were they again?

HARRIMAN: Chevron four encoded.

DANIEL: Beggars can't be choosers. Better late than never. Look before you leap.

MITCHELL: The best things in life are free.

VALA: And let me guess - beauty is only skin deep?

DANIEL: Silence is golden.

HARRIMAN: Chevron five encoded.

MITCHELL: Jack of all trades, master of none.

CARTER: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

VALA: Life is too short.

HARRIMAN: Chevron six encoded.

TEAL'C: Good things come to those who wait.

CARTER: You know, as hard as it is for us not knowing, it must be torture for you not to tell us.

TEAL'C: Indeed.

(STARGATE ACTIVATING)

HARRIMAN: Chevron seven is locked.

(STARGATE WHOOSHING)

LANDRY: Good luck, SG-1.

MITCHELL: Just another everyday mission to save the galaxy, sir.

ALL: Indeed.

LANDRY: Godspeed.

END OF EPISODE

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Just another everyday mission to save the galaxy. Meaning they went to a planet which was already visited by a Prior, but not converted yet, and they tried to convince them not to accept Origin before the Prior returned. These kind of missions were always very risky, especially since they destrolyed the Ori with the Sangraal; but even more so since they "killed" Adria. Who has ascended. The implications have not even begun to sink in yet. Ultimately, Daniel thought, this meant that they were back to square one: the Ori were back. Granted, now the whole Ori was only one ascended being, but with the power she got from the followers most likely that wouldn't make any difference in a war against the Others. The Others had more power if there were more of them; but the Ori had more power if they had more followers, so their own number only mattered because it determined how much power a single Ori got. But maybe, just maybe, this one-person-Ori was a bit better than the previous situation: maybe she still couldn't be in more than one place, seeing she was still one being.

But this was all speculation. Maybe the Ori are always a kind of collective consciousness, able to split themselves into as many parts as needed. But Daniel hoped that was not the case; he wanted to believe that he, Merlin and his friends didn't go through the hell of finding the Sangraal, building it and using it just for nothing. At the very least, if they managed to turn most of the believers against the Ori _(Ha! Like that was going to happen...)_, then there would only be one Ori with normal ascended powers to destroy. And they would only need one ascended to do it, then. Like Oma with Anubis, fighting forever.

These thoughts plagued Daniel as they walked towards the soon-to-be-converted-or-not village on P6X-023; but seeing as he thought them over, and over and over and over since Adria has ascended, this wasn't in the forefront of his mind. No, he had fresh "material" to think about: their last mission. Which gave Teal'c a silver streak in his hair.

To live fifty or sixty years with five peole on a ship standing unmoving in space... He was kind of glad he didn't remember. Apparently, he had gone old with the rest of them... With Vala... the woman he was in love with. To think that either he had to bear it, had to hide it for all those years, or they got together, and spent all that time in each other's company, both of them growing old... But no matter what happened, they still had a completely pointless life aboard a ship. Vala was right, if he looked at it that way, life really was too short.

Even for him. And that brought the thought of a big problem he had since the first mission to Abydos. Had he ever told them there, stranded in space for the rest of their lives? Does this older Teal'c know his secret? Teal'c was very subtle, but Daniel was extremely good at reading people, so he saw that Teal'c was looking at him a little different since the "Odyssey incident". But Daniel was hopeful; he also saw Teal'c giving Vala looks, and the looks doubled in intensity when Vala and Daniel were close to each other... that could mean he was waiting for them to get together "again"...

So, despite his worries about the Ori and the re-emerged worries about his "problem", he was positively cheerful. Maybe that's why he started saying all those proverbs in the Gate Room... He may have a chance with Vala. Up to this point, he didn't really believe it. He was afraid because he thought she was just playing with him. He knew it was unfair to her, but he coudn't get rid of that fear. But now... What Teal'c told them (and what he _didn't_ tell them) got him thinking, and he suddenly realized that there was no point in being afraid. He had to give it a chance. And the look they shared in the Gateroom... So why shouldn't he be happy, and why should he dwell on the Ori or on the problem that started on Abydos and gave him a chance to live _one human life_?

Dammit, his thoughts couldn't be more chaotic. That problem gave him a chance at one normal life; so why couldn't he leave it alone? Because he knew it was likely that he won't die a natural death, and if he died earlier and his theory proved to be correct... Well, that would save him from having to worry about getting shot, wouldn't it? But it would raise a lot of other problems... For example, explaining it to his friends.

Since Abydos, he tried to live like a normal man. He tried to completely forget his previous life, he tried to be Daniel Jackson, but every time he came close to death, or died and was revived in a sarcophagus, or those two times he ascended, it was brought again to the forefront of his mind: that this state couldn't be permanent. Something may bring back his old life again. He didn't want that. That's why he didn't tell anyone: he kept hoping he wouldn't have to.

_Don't think about it! You know you don't want to remember!_ He scolded himself for letting his thoughts wander to that dangerous territory. Better to think about Vala and think of ways to let her know he seriously loved her. Before the Odyssey, he wouldn't have dared to consider that; but now he was hopeful she might be serious, too.

And with that thought, Daniel showed the nagging feeling that he may have to deal with his old problem soon to the back of his mind, and focused his wandering mind on Vala.

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P.S.: Please review! I really want to know what you think about this. Is it horrible, too chaotic, incomprehensible, full of grammar mistakes and odd sentences? I know it was just rambling but that's how I think in my own head, just jumping from one thought to another.

Oh yeah, and who knows what kind of a crossover it is? The title kind of gives it away... If you don't know, Princes of the Universe is an excellent song by Queen. They made a whole album (A Kind of Magic, 1986) for that movie.

Quite honestly, I don't know how long this is going to be, but I have 17000 words written and lots of things planned. So, does anybody want to be my beta?


	2. Above The Sun

Chapter 02 - Above The Sun

The rest of the team was silent, too, each lost in their own thoughts - the proverbs and Teal'c's silver hair made them all think about the same thing: life is too short indeed.

When they had miraculously escaped from the Ori with Teal'c's help, he hadn't explained everything immediately. He only told them the basics of what happened because he said that they should mourn the Asgard first. He had been right. It took them a few days to get back to Earth and they had spent that time trying to imagine what the universe would be like without the Asgard. How many times did they and their beaming technology save their lives? And Thor had been a good friend, especially for the original team members. His timing had been always... well, not impeccable, but certainly interesting. (Though that statement was true to the members of SG-1, too...) They didn't talk about it, but they all felt how severe the loss was. The universe had lost a whole race in a blink of an eye, a race of good people, in a time when their help was much needed. And they entrusted humans to continue their legacy. How were they going to do it?

After they had a little time to reflect on this, Teal'c explained everything he could about their escape from the Ori. And thus began their current train of thoughts.

As they were walking towards the village, Cam tried to imagine how the hell did he cope with that awfully long time in a closed space, and made a mental note to call Amy again as soon as they arrived home. He needed to get a life.

Sam was both fascinated and horrified by the idea of spending 50-60 years with research and figuring out how to reverse time. She really did it on her own? How did she manage that? And how the hell could she cope without Jack? She needed him for crying out loud, the distance between Washington DC and Colorado Springs was bad enough...

Vala was throving quick glances at both Teal'c and Daniel - on both of their faces she tried to see if Daniel loved her or not. She supposed she would have gone crazy on that ship alone if he didn't; then again, he was the best friend she could have hoped for, and would have been there for her even if they didn't get together. Unless... In her desperation and boredom, she may have tried something stupid, and if Daniel got mad at her... that could have been ugly. The idea was horrifying, and she made a mental note to try to go slow, and only if Daniel showed some willingness. She was not prepared to lose his friendship.

And Teal'c? He was practically grinning inside, though he would have never showed it. It felt so good to see his friends so lively, so young, even though he missed their old selves; even though it was very strange that they had the chance to get to know each other even better than before and he was the only one who remembered it. How much the six of them laughed together!

But he was happy for them because this got all of them thinking about life, and he was glad he could make them see that they had to grab every opportunity to really, truly_live_. He could sense how profound their thoughts were and he knew they would benefit from them. He was also confident that Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran would see the truth about each other again and that it would go more smoothly than it had on the ship.

Though they were all deeply lost in their thoughts and the village was almost a mile away from the Stargate, they were alertly scanning their surroundings for any kind of a threat. According to their intellingence the Prior had only been there once and promised to return in three days to ask what the village's decision was. The people now would be trying to decide whether to accept Origin or not, giving SG-1 the best chance to try and get them to say no.

When they got near the village all of them came out of their musings and focused on the task at hand. As they entered the village all the people looked at them and one of them immediately hurried to their side, spreading his arms wide and beaming at them.

"Greetings, travellers! I am Taler. I can see you came through the Chaapa'ai; please, follow me to the visitors' hall!"

Daniel thought he seemed sincere and eager enough; maybe even too eager for his liking. The mention of the Chaapa'ai indicated that they were familiar with Gate travel, they were used to visitors, and most likely this had been a Goa'uld-controlled planet once. Still, something was off; he couldn't explain it, he just felt a feeling of wrongness when Taler started speaking. Like that wasn't what he was supposed to say. Daniel subtly nudged Cam when Taler turned to lead the way, and gave him a look which said "be careful"; he saw him look back at him inquiringly but he passed on the message to Sam and Teal'c while Daniel "told" Vala. Then they all followed their enthusiastic leader.

Going deeper into the village which was slightly bigger than the average, they saw that many people were using Goa'uld technology. People barely looked up when they passed, going about their business. A couple of small kids ran out of one of the houses; in their haste they bumped into Vala, then scurried away. Daniel turned after them and heard one of them mutter something sounding eerily like "above the sun" before the kids disappeared in a narrow alleyway.

He stiffened. Why would a kid in an ex-Goa'uld village say an Ori greeting instead of an apology? Their intelligence said that the Prior's first visit only ended yesterday, surely they didn't...? Unless...

Cam stopped and turned back to him when he saw that he didn't follow. "What's up, Jackson?"

Daniel's mind worked frantically. Was this really a trap? If so, they had no hope of breaking out. They always carried an anti-Prior device with them so a Prior would not be a real threat, but they were in the village pretty deep and if the various Goa'uld devices were any indication, they surely had staff weapons and zats, too... especially since the Priors now knew they had a weapon against them. The whole village could be armed with Goa'uld weapons. If the Priors finally got smart enough, they would rely on the greater numbers of the villagers to bring them down.

"It's a trap" he whispered to his teammates as he passed them. The change in them was almost undetectable; they were careful not to show suspicion. If it was really a trap, then their best shot was to enter the visitors' hall behind Taler and take him out silently; if they moved in the open, the whole village could be on top of them in the blink of an eye. So they took the remaining few steps to the door and entered. The hall was a room with wooden tables and chairs. As soon as they were inside, however, the door closed behind them and two others opened.

Teal'c grabbed Taler and held him at gunpoint in front of them even while he knew it was no use; they couldn't hide behind a single man against two dozen staff weapons.

One of the men stepped forward.

"I am Khatar, leader of the village of Verino. In the name of the Ori, I command you to lower you weapons."

SG-1 looked at each other and complied; they had a better chance at escaping unhurt than they would have if they were unconscious, injured or dead. As they slowy bent down to put their weapons, vest and packs to the ground, Taler quickly joined the group of armed men.

It seemed they didn't trust them at all; after they put their weapons on the ground, they were searched. The additional knives in their boots were found, so were Cam's and Sam's hidden sidearms. They even took their green BDU shirts with the SG-1 patches, so all of them were now in their black T-shirts, green BDU pants and black military boots. Not a lot of gear to get out of the old Goa'uld prison cell they were roughly ushered into.

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P.S.: Thanks for all the reviews and story alerts! I'm glad you found the beginning interesting. Thanks for the advice, too, I'm trying my best but unfortunately I have my own warped kind of logic, and something that makes sense to me doesn't necessarily make sense to others. :D I usually start to write without stopping, then when I read it a few days later, I add some stuff here and there which makes it even more chaotic. Well, I gotta practice more. My biggest problem right now is that I haven't a clue where chapters should start and end, and I'm not sure about chapter titles either... I may change some things later, I have to get some experience before I can do things more smoothly.

Oh yeah, one more thing. This is my last year at high school. You know what this means. Oh yeah, I have a lot to learn. So please don't be too mad if I don't update very often, because it probably means I'm writing a history essay or something like that... (sigh) Well, thanks again for reading!


	3. Wanted Dead Not Alive

Chapter 03 - Wanted Dead Not Alive

The room had smooth grey walls with one door and the back section sealed off by metallic bars. Taler pushed some buttons on the panel next to the door, and the bars drew back into the ceiling, creating an opening. Cam, Sam, Vala and Teal'c were pushed inside, with some help from the staff weapons; but the team realised with mounting tension that Daniel was being kept outside, and with a push of a button, they were locked in, the bars falling back into place.

Daniel slowly backed into the bars, facing the Ori followers. He locked his eyes on the staffs pointed towards him and he watched as the guards primed them, which was accompanied by the familiar sound of crackling energy as the weapons charged. He could see that they were ready to shoot at their slightest movement, which worried him even more than the fact that they were captured. They weren't about to be left alone, they weren't treated with the usual confidence of captors. Up until now almost everyone made the mistake of being convinced that they had the upper hand. But this time Daniel could tell that these villagers were being extremely careful.

He watched with conflicting emotions as Khatar had their gear tossed into a pile and disintegrated by three zat blasts. On the one hand, this only proved that Khatar wasn't willing to take any chances. On the other hand, he couldn't help but feel a small sense of relief knowing the Ori didn't get a hold of the anti-Prior device. If they had… every Prior would be immune the next time any of the SGC met them.

Khatar stepped forward and started speaking, holding his own staff weapon like Priors hold their staffs.

"By the order of the Doci, the one who speaks the words of the Ori: 'The team of unbelievers known as SG-1 are to be killed. There shall be no hesitation; for the Traitor is amongst them, and his wickedness knows no bounds. They shall die one by one, watching their accomplices' demise. The Traitor shall be first, for he corrupts all he speaks to, and deserves no judgement from the Gods; he will suffer eternal pain in the afterlife. The others shall be given twelve hours so that, free from the influence of the Traitor, they shall contemplate his death and the error of their ways, to give their souls a chance in the afterlife. When the time has passed, they shall be put to death to face the judgement of the Ori. Their bodies shall be delivered to the Prior as proof, and then the village who hath the great faith to accomplish this deed shall have eternal glory amongst the only true gods.' Thus it was said by the Doci, so thus it shall be."

The team was frozen as if petrified. Apparently, they were no longer "wanted dead or alive". They were just "wanted dead". And, it seemed, Daniel had no time left. They called him the Traitor, their number one target. They must have gotten a little pissed off after Daniel bluffed them all into thinking that he was on their side... And they would have met with the same thing on any other Ori-controlled planet. Half the galaxy was after them and they didn't even know.

Khatar raised his staff and aimed. Daniel moved half a step forward and looked him squarely in the eye. He vaguely heard his teammates' protests and cries of denial, but he wasn't paying attention. The shot came; at point blank range, it burned him through and, passing between the bars, hit the wall behind him; the others had enough sense to get out of its way. He barely had time to register the burning pain before he was slammed into the bars by the force of the blast; four pairs of strong arms reached for him through the gaps, gently lowering him to the ground.

The villagers left, the door lock clicking loudly behind them. Daniel tried to get his breathing under control, but he knew it was useless. Khatar had deliberately aimed low, hitting Daniel in the abdomen where his death would be slow and painful. Still, it would kill him quickly enough - leaving him no time to get to the panel to free his friends. But he was grateful for the time he did have, time to say goodbye.

Vala was not even aware that she was chanting "no, no, please, Daniel don't do this to me" while they lowered him to the ground. Sam attempted to look at the wound - not good - they could all see that he had only moments left.

Even as Sam stopped trying to slow the bleeding Daniel managed to gasp, "Sorry, guys, but I don't think I can get you out right now..." He looked up at them, seeing their disbelieving expressions.

They didn't know what to say. They barely even had time to realize that they were set up to be captured and Daniel was already dying in their arms. They saw that his eyes, though filled with pain, were trying to tell them that it was all right. They should be trying to comfort him, but instead he was trying to comfort them. If they could have formed a thought, they would have wondered how he could have the strength to do that.

His painful gasps and his shaking quieted quickly, and were replaced by a calm, peaceful expression. He knew he was slipping away. He didn't feel pain anymore, just the grips of four hands on his own. He tried to clear the haze that was starting to cloud his thoughts and collected all his remaining strength. He wanted to use all the time that was left to him because he didn't know what would be happening next. He looked up at them, goodbye in his eyes.

"Thank you... for being my friends. For being my family. If you get out of here tell Jack the same for me. I don't know how to tell you how much these past ten years have meant to me..."

Teal'c's eyes radiated sorrow as Sam cried silently. Cam scowled looking as if he wanted to hit something and Vala shook her head in denial. She screwed her eyes shut. This couldn't be happening, especially not now. She didn't want to believe it because if she did, she wouldn't be able to hold herself together. She couldn't bear to lose Daniel.

"Vala... Vala, look at me..." There wasn't more time; he wanted to say it. "I love you."

But Vala continued to shake her head. "No. No, Daniel, you're not doing this. You can't die on me now..."

"Vala... I know what dying f-feels like... Please... look at me..."

When she finally raised her head, her cheeks were wet with tears.

"I... love... you..." He repeated, his voice now barely more than a whisper. She let out an anguished sob and a feeble attempt at a smile.

Daniel looked at Teal'c.

"Daniel Jackson, it was my honour to be your friend and family." Teal'c stated in an even deeper voice than normal.

"It was my honour too, Teal'c..."

"Oh Daniel... I'm going to miss you so much... even if we all die soon..." Sam managed to choke.

"I know... I know, Sam."

"Aw, come on, man... Daniel... what am I going to say to the General?" Cam stumbled momentarily over Daniel's name then grinned, tears evindent in his eyes.

"You called me Daniel, Cam..."

"Yeah, I did... I'm sorry I didn't before... Hey, you called me Cam!"

Daniel just smiled and nodded at that.

"I love you too." Vala said suddenly, grasping Daniel shoulder as tightly as she could. Tears were leaking from her eyes but her gaze didn't waver from his beautiful blue eyes: she wanted him to look into her soul and see how much she loved him, and she wanted to lose herself in those eyes... which told her that he wanted the same.

For a long moment, they just stared at each other, the dying man trying to maintain his fragile grip on life for just a few more seconds. Nothing existed anymore, just the four hands on his arm and the greyish-blue eyes of the woman he loved. Then Daniel smiled, breathed "Goodbye..." and he finally let go.

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In the moment of his death, Daniel became aware of two things. One was that it was likely he could ascend on his own; the light, the peace, the understanding, it was all there, he just had to open his mind and wish it, and it would all be his again, this time completely, because he would achieve it himself. The other was that his theory about his problem was correct. That meant he had a choice besides ascending and a final death. For a moment, he bordered on the decision between the three choices.

"Who wants to live forever?" the question haunted him. He's lived so long, seen so much. Lost so much. He had so many chances at life he couldn't even count them all, when most people didn't even get a second chance. He was so tired, had been for a long time now. It would be so easy to let go, to finally rest without any worries and responsibilities... But no. He didn't want this to be his last, final death. They still had a great enemy to defeat, and he'd started having hopes for his personal future, too. Vala said she loved him. And she looked straight at him when she said her proverb in the Gate Room: "Life is too short." She was right. For some things maybe even forever wasn't long enough.

He wasn't ready to ascend yet, either. Eventually, yes, that would be his final destination, but not now; he'd only end up descending again.

So he went for the third choice: the problem he was trying hard not to think about for the last eleven years. Now his friends will have to deal with his problem, too, and probably a few other people as well. He may lose them. He may even lose Vala, but he would see them again. See _her_ again. It was very risky, but he already rejected the idea of his other options. And it might be worth it in the end.

He hoped the twelve hours his friends had left would be enough for him. Deciding to devote all of his willpower to make the process as quick as possible, he grabbed for his choice and his lingering consciousness followed his body into the all too familiar darkness of death.

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P.S.: Hehe. This is good. Briar, I understand you now. I love reviewers... and cliffhangers, too... :D Do you like it? There are now four song titles in this fic: "Princes of the Universe" and "Who Wants to Live Forever" by Queen, "Forever May Not Be Long Enough" by Live and "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi. The latter is from a songfic I can't find. There may be more later, because I love watching SG-1 music videos...

This is the first chapter that has been betaed - the excellent work of spacegypsy1. Thank you!!! FYI if anything's still off it's probably because I didn't always listen to her :D

I'm truly sorry for the delay, and I'm sorry for not answering to reviews. I'm grateful for all of them. But I had tests and essays every single day this week... It was exhausting, believe me. AND we have school tomorrow, because this Tuesday is a national holiday and we're getting Monday off, too. (On 23 October, 1956, there was a revolution against the soviet communists. University students against tanks on the streets of Budapest... Well, we were the first who tried - and we actually succeeded for a few days! Then they stayed here until 1989... Okay, enough of the history lesson! I bet you're not interested in that... ;) I know you want the next chapter. It'll come quicker than this one, I promise.


	4. Shocked

Chapter 04 - Shocked

Vala watched with breaking heart as Daniel looked into her eyes, his whole being seeming to smile. Then he whispered goodbye. And the light in his eyes - in his beautiful blue eyes, the eyes which could convey so much emotion with such an intensity, which were watching her with so much love - that beautiful light was extinguished, leaving them empty and lifeless.

Lifeless. Dead.

She choked back a sob, and reached out with her free hand through the bars. She gently took the glasses off his face, put them in her pocket, then reached out again to close his eyes. She didn't want to see the dead look in them again.

There. Now he looked so peaceful he might have been sleeping.

She was full of conflicting emotions: full of love, for Daniel said he loved her, full of sorrow, for he was dead, full of rage for the people who killed him. But an overwhelming sense of calm surrounded her - she would die in twelve hours, too, and she would see him again.

Sitting next to the bars Vala fiddled with Daniel's glasses. Sam sat at the back wall, her knees drawn up to her chest, her head bent down. Cam sat across the room staring at the ceiling. Teal'c stood vigil in the middle of the cell, looking at the door.

"He didn't ascend. I thought he would." Sam's muffled voice spoke to her knees.

"As did I." Teal's voice came, still deepened by sorrow.

Cam and Vala had to admit they hadn't thought of that. The other two had seen it twice; they didn't. Cam hasn't even seen an ascended being. Vala saw Morgan Le Fay and she saw Adria ascend, but it just didn't occur to her. Vala's thought for a moment was that maybe they would really meet in the afterlife, if there was one.

Cam spoke. "He told us to deliver his message to General O'Neill." Nobody answered. "According to that bastard, Khatar, they're leaving us alone for twelve hours. That's how long we have to find a way out."

"So that we can fulfill Daniel Jackson's last wish." Teal'c answered at last.

"Right." Sam got up, wiping her face on her long black sleeve. Vala stood up reluctantly. If they got out, they would have to leave him here... and she wouldn't join him in twelve hours...

But Daniel wanted her to live, didn't he? He wouldn't have wanted her to follow so soon. And doing something was better than sitting.

They searched the cell and themselves for any object they could use without any luck. The smooth grey walls weren't metallic, but they were strong; even Cam's belt buckle refused to leave a scratch on them. The floor and ceiling were the same, no fissures, no cracks. Light came from a white circle on the ceiling in the middle of the area outside the bars. The bars seemed to be made from steel, and they were about two inches in diameter. Sam could easily climb them to knock at the ceiling, but it was as strong as the walls.

"Let's try lifting the bars upwards. That's how we came in, isn't it?" At Vala's question, everybody looked at her, then they complied. They tried all of the bars, even tried pulling them upwards together, but they wouldn't move.

Finally, Sam admitted "I'm guessing they are locked somehow. It could be as simple as a padlock, but they could even be sealed by some magnetic force. I doubt it's the weight; the bars are hollow. If we could disable what's holding them, I'm sure we could lift them by hand..."

"However, we possess no means of accomplishing that," concluded Teal'c.

Cam plopped down dejectedly to the floor, and resumed staring at the ceiling. Sam went back to her wall too, and Teal'c sat down on the floor cross-legged.

Vala slid down next to the bars, took Daniel's limp hand in hers, and closed her eyes.

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Nearly seven hours passed as they sat silently in the cell having exhausted all efforts to escape. In all that time Vala refused to let go of Daniel's cold hand.

Teal'c, who seemed to be kelno'reeming, suddenly spoke. "Khatar informed us that the orders to capture and kill us came from the Doci, and that would mean every Ori world received them. Therefore, SG teams or one of our allies may learn of them. If so, Stargate Command may try to contact us ahead of schedule, and when they receive no answer, they may attempt to send a rescue team. However..."

"However, a ground assault would need a lot of troops; the SGC doesn't have enough resources, and even if they did, the casualities would be great. Not to mention the fact that the villagers would most likely execute us at the first sign of an attack." Cam cut his eyes toward Daniel and quickly turned away.

"And we have no ships available; the Daedalus is in Atlantis and the Odyssey is still full of Asgard technology, they're taking it apart now. So they can't beam us out either." Sam told them looking up.

They sat in silence, staring at each other. Vala voiced their thoughts. "Then, my initial thought was right. We'll be seeing Daniel again soon."

They all knew that was the most likely outcome since there was nothing they could do about it. But they always had hope left. Goodbyes will have to wait until later.

So, for now, they just sat in silence.

Vala yelped. She jumped to her feet letting Daniel's cold hand go and backed away from the bars. The others instinctively stood up.

"What?" Cam asked the woman who was staring at the bars in shock.

"Something stung me... like a jolt of electricity."

Teal'c started to step forward to check if the bars were electrified now, but before he could reach them, there was a collective gasp from his friends.

Blue lightning started to dance over Daniel's wound, slowly closing it, healing the torn skin.

Then the electricity spread over his whole body; it looked remarkaby like a zat blast, but it didn't dissipate, and intensified to the point where part of it transferred to the steel bars his body was partly touching.

SG-1 backed into the opposite wall and flattened themselves against it; the sight both enthralled and terrified them.

The light show intensified; the bars were full of the blue lightning now. Daniel's body jerked and convulsed, then lifted into the air by the unknown energy.

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Daniel came back to life with the lightning bolts of his Quickening travelling up and down his body. He threw his head back and screamed; the part of his brain that was coherent even through the pain registered that the strength of its force had lifted him off the ground. That was very rare, and it never happened with a simple reviving, not even if it was a First Death.

But this was no First Death. This was all of his power - all the power he gained through millenia, the power which has been completely suppressed for the last eleven years - slamming into him again, escaping from the small space in his mind. It was so intense it tried to escape his body, too; if he didn't get it under control, at least temporarily, it could demolish the whole village. The energies, the Quickenings he received, his ancient memories, it was all coming to the forefront of his mind; he started reliving them all, getting lost in his own past. But he couldn't afford to let it happen; if he did, it would kill his friends along with the village. Inao - not Daniel - remembered he could control this. He had to; he must hold it back, let it happen later, when it wouldn't hurt anybody. With a tremendous effort, he strained to end the torrent of power coming to the surface. Daniel strained to remember how to do it. Calm, focus, control. That was it. It should have been impossible to stop, but he's seen too much to believe that anything was impossible. He just _had to_ do it before it really started. And he succeeded.

His screaming abruptly stopped; he fell to the ground, most of the lightning going back to his body. Daniel rolled over to his stomach and tried to stand up, but a few sparks were still travelling over him, so all he managed was getting up on all fours and collapsing again, looking at his shocked teammates as the electricity running through him finally subsided. The last of the electrical blue sparks danced in his equally blue eyes and disappeared under the surface.

Daniel lay there, panting from the aftermath, but smiling up at their incredulous faces. He made it; they were all still here, and there were no guards in the room; they might be able to escape. He felt irrationally giddy and rejuvenated from the power surging through him, like nothing could go wrong.

Grunting, Daniel sat up with help from one of the bars, then peered at his teammates again.

"Hey guys. I'm back again." Daniel couldn't stop grinning, and they couldn't stop staring.

"Daniel...?" Vala asked tentatively, as if afraid of him.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm all right." Daniel smiled; the way he felt was asbolutely wonderful. He reached towards Vala through the bars. She slowly stepped forward, and carefully touched his hand. It was warm. She launched herself forward and hugged him as well as she could with the obstacles between them.

Cam stood open-mouthed staring as Vala embraced the obviously alive archeologist. "How?" Cam finally managed to croak out in confusion.

Sam, who at first had smiled when Vala rushed to hug Daniel, suddenly turned to him as if struck. "Did they do something to you? The Ori?"

Daniel quickly shook his head. "No, no, nothing like that. I can assure you, the Ori don't know anything about it. I know what happened, and I can explain it, but it's a long story. Right now..."

"We need to focus on our escape. It is good to have you back, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c was really, truly smiling, and no doubt would have clasped his friend's arm if he could.

Daniel beamed back at Teal'c.

"That means I have to let you go?" came a muffled voice. Daniel laughed and stood up, pulling the raven-haired woman with him. They were standing nose to nose with the bars between them, moving closer to each other, elecric blue eyes looking into steel gray ones. But before their lips could have touched each other...

"Wait." Daniel stepped back. He winced internally; he was all right for the moment, but they wouldn't be, especialy after he explained it to them. "I... I meant what I said. I love you. But what I need to tell you is big, and I... I want to give you a chance to back out after I explained it."

Vala seemed even more shocked than she was before but she reluctantly nodded, letting him go.

Suddenly Daniel didn't know what to do. The elation was gone and reality came crashing down upon him. Exhaustion washed over Daniel in waves, and suddenly the power in him became a burden, something he had to fight constantly to keep control. He was suddenly terrified of their reaction, especially Vala's. He screwed his eyes shut trying to calm himself down. Escape. Yes. That's what they had to do now. "Right... so, how long was I... out?"

"Seven hours." Sam explained, before it suddenly struck her that he knew. "Wait... you knew this would happen, didn't you? Daniel, why the hell didn't you tell us!?" Sam took a step towards him, clearly upset.

Daniel winced at her reaction. "Seven hours..." That was shorter than a usual First Death, but it was understandable that it was different this time. "I'm really sorry I put you through this, guys; but no, I wasn't sure this would happen. I knew there was a slim chance... but I had neither the strength nor the time to explain it. But I will, as soon as we get home. I promise."

They looked at him skeptically, then turned to look at each other. Sam sighed as Cam shifted on his feet uneasily then, one by one, they reluctantly nodded. They sensed his stalling but decided to humor him for now. Daniel was right; all of them knew this was not the time for discussion.

"Okay, then let's get you out of there." Daniel strode over to the panel which opened the bars and punched in the combination he'd seen Taler enter. Nothing happened.

"Okay, why didn't that work?" Cam asked. "Maybe you got it wrong; anybody else remember differently?" He looked around to see if they had any ideas.

The others shook their heads and Daniel tried again. The buttons blinked as he pushed them, but no success.

"The panel appears to be intact." Daniel thought for a moment. "Sam, is it possible that my Quickening damaged the opening mechanism?"

"Your what?" Sam asked in confusion.

_Damn._ He hadn't meant to use the word. "The lightning show. It transferred to the bars, didn't it?" Daniel clarified.

"Yeah, it did. You're right, it could have affected the opening mechanism..." Sam trailed off, thinking, and her face suddenly lit up with enthusiasm. "But if I'm right, and they were really locked in place by some magnetic force, it may have interrupted that too! Guys, let's try lifting the bars again."

Cam stepped forward and grabbed one of the bars, straining to pull it up. Help arrived in the form of Teal'c and the bar finally lifted a little, but not enough. The panting colonel looked at Daniel, signaling with his eyes that they could use a hand, and the three of them finally managed to lift the bar above their heads. Cam sighed, relieved, when they let it go and it stayed put. He stepped to the next bar and the others followed repeating the exercise.

Teal'c checked the opening and found that he could squeeze himself through. The others followed him. They were one step closer to freedom.

"Now what?" Vala slammed her hands on her hips and looked curiously at Daniel to see if he had anything to say now, but the archeologist just looked away. She simply couldn't imagine what was going on with him, and that scared her. Vala didn't like not knowing things.

Sam examined the panel and the door. "Well, the panel doesn't open that door, it can't even be rewired to do it. And the door has no handle, it's completely smooth metal, so I'm guessing it's magnetically sealed like the bars were. But this hasn't been affected. I'm sorry, I can't open it from the inside."

"Then we'll just have to ambush them as they enter, won't we?" They all turned to Cam eyeing him with disdain and the Colonel held up his hands. "Okay... plan B, anyone?"

"Would a smaller electric shock be enough to open this door, Sam?" Daniel knew it should be enough, but it didn't hurt to ask.

"Yes, it might, why?" Sam asked. Then she seemed to catch on. "Wait a mintue... You mean you can do it again? You can control electricity?" she asked, incredulous.

"Uh, not really..." Daniel sighed. If they wanted to get out of here, he had to give them something. "Right now, I'm kind of... invulnerable. My injuries heal themselves. That was what that blue lightning did; it's called a Quickening. So, seeing as we don't have any better plans, when I open the door, I'll be the one to go out and take out the guards. Hopefully, there will be only two of them. Then we try to get out of the village as quietly as possible. Okay?" In his nervousness he rattled this off as quickly as he could.

They stared at him again, eyes huge. Cam scratched his head, crossed his arms and said a bit sarcastically, "Wow... so, anything else we should know about? Laser eyes, flying? Adamantium claws? Or should I say 'Hi Merlin, long time no see?'"

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Look, you've seen me revive; is this so hard to believe?"

"Nooo... I suppose we have to admit we've seen equally strange things..." said Vala. "It's just that most of them had some kind of an explanation. By the way, I have your glasses; but I suppose you don't need them either, do you?" She wanted the comment to be sarcastic but her voice broke slightly when she remembered how she felt when she took them.

Daniel instinctively reached up to his nose, and indeed, his glasses didn't seem to be there. He hadn't even realized he was seeing clearly without them.

"No I don't need them, but thank you... now, are you okay with the plan?"

"We are, but... no offence, man, but how do you intend to open the door again? I thought you said that the lightnin' only heals your injuries..." Cameron drawled.

Daniel smiled, turned to the wall and punched it, hard. There was a crunch, a hiss of pain and a chorused shout of "Hey!" as he broke some of the bones in his hand. He quickly moved to the door and flattened his palm against the place where the handle would have been, all without batting an eye. The dancing lightning bolts appeared, healing his hand, but Daniel, who learned over time to control them more than most Immortals could, made them a little more intense than necessary. Though it needed more effort than he remembered... Anyway, that had to be enough for the magnetic lock.

Daniel withdrew his hand and shook it to be sure he got flexibility back and there was no residual pain. Now they only needed to give the door a little push, and they were out of the room.

"See?" he mouthed at them. Teal'c gave him a glare which clearly said "That was unwise" but refrained from saying anything.

Daniel signaled his team to hide on the two sides of the door. They flattened themsleves against the wall as he counted back from three on his fingers and pushed the door open, hard. The guard on the left was thrown to the ground by the door as Daniel dived for the one standing on the right, knocking him out with a well-aimed punch then, in one fluid motion grabbed the guard's zat and shot the other who was already starting to get up. Then he turned to zat the first guard, too, just to be safe, and that motion saved him from being zatted himself - when a third guard further down the corridor tried to shoot him. Daniel quickly crouched but before he could fire, the guard was enveloped by electricity and dropped to the ground, unconscious. He looked back over his shoulder to see Vala standing behind him, zat in her hand.

He managed not to sigh in exasperation. He should've known she would try to help him, and he felt grateful, but he was also scared - what if the guards had staff weapons, too, and she'd have been hit? Strangely, now that he coudn't get hurt he suddenly feared for the others more.

The team moved quickly, swiftly gathering the weapons as they dragged the guards into the cell and locked them in. Like always, they avoided killing as much as they could - after all, the believers of Origin were actually convinced that they were the ones doing the right thing and SG-1 was evil.

The rest of the place was not as strongly built as the cell, and it was rather small; it had a few empty rooms and corridors, but no back door. And the front door was not an option: it opened to the main square and many guards stood outside, obscuring the view.

"If we managed to acquire a staff weapon, it could effectively demolish the rear wall of the facility, providing us with an alternate exit." Teal'c suggested, remembering that the building's back wall faced an abandoned alleyway.

"Yeah, but getting one could prove a problem." Daniel pointed out. He hung his head dejectedly. They had to do something, or the others would never make it out of here alive.

"Well, do we have anything to use instead of them?" Vala looked around, as if expecting to see a grenade in any corner.

"That's it!" Sam exclaimed, stepping forward. "I think I can rig one of the zats to overload and explode. We'll have only two weapons left, but the explosion may be small enough not to be heard outside. We can sneak out of the village through the narrow alleyways."

"Let's do it, then." Cam slapped his hands together and took off in a trot back through the corridors to the back of the building with the rest of SG-1 close behind him.

Sam pried open one of the zats, took out something small, green and glowing which looked like a power source, fiddled a little with it and placed it between the bricks of the wall. She then took another zat, motioned everyone to get clear, backed off to safety and fired. The explosion was surprisingly small - Sam knew what she was doing. It wasn't loud at all but it weakened the brick wall enough for them to make a hole big enough to squeeze through.

"Okay, kids, we have two zats and three knives. Vala and Jackson, take the zats. We're better with knives than you." Everybody moved to obey Cam's order... except Daniel.

"Actually, I'm the best with knives..." Daniel sighed at the looks. "I'll tell you later. Trust me." _While you still can_, he thought bitterly.

So it was Cam, Daniel and Sam with knives and Teal'c and Vala with zats. The team, once outside, crept through alleyways and narrow streets, hiding in every shadow. Once they got out of the vicinity of the main square, everything was eerily quiet. They haven't seen anyone in the last few minutes.

Finally, it occured to Vala. "It must be Prostration Day! That's why no one's here; they're all on the main square!" she whispered urgently. "Or maybe they're just celebrating their enemy's 'death'..." she mused, sending a grin towards Daniel.

He smiled. They seemed to be taking it OK for now... He didn't know what their theories were, but he was sure they all had one that helped them cope for the moment. And he was also sure they were all wrong. Daniel could see their relief that he was back, though they were obviously very shaken, and they kept sending him curious glances, watching him closely. But he felt glad they seemed to trust him for now. Probably making up for the lack of trust in that horrible time when he would have needed it most... when he and Merlin let themselves to be turned into a Prior. And now he'll have to go home and tell them someting he never wanted to tell, someting that will probably convince them that they shouldn't have trusted him at all. To tell them about Immortals, about the Game..._Gods, they'll never understand._

Daniel almost stopped in shock. He thought "gods". _Daniel_ never thought or said that. _Inao_ did, and even that was a long time ago, he gave up the habit centuries earlier. Well, he supposed, he really was Inao again - not entirely yet, but he would be once he found an abandoned place and let that all-consuming energy to fully come to the surface. But his memories were already starting to resurface, not in the usual flashbacks every Immortal had, but more subtly - in feelings and thoughts. It worried him, but he knew he wasn't back to "normal" yet.

For now, though, he had to focus on their escape.

They almost made it undetected. SG-1 was at the edge of the vilage - still almost half a mile from the Gate. There was no more cover; the only chance was to run and hope nobody spotted them. But even as they looked around to see if the way was clear, they heard shouts - their escape had been discovered. The prostration was probably over and the villagers must have realized the guards weren't at their posts. The team bolted; this would be one hell of a sprint.

Soon staff blasts started flying past them as the pursuing guards got close enough to shoot. Daniel deliberately lagged behind, constantly glancing back. If a shot came for one of his friends, he was determined to take it as it would do him no real harm. Teal'c and Vala were firing their zats backwards, hitting enough of the guards to protect the team, but a few blasts reached them anyway. In a short time, all of them got some mild burns, always ducking out of the blast's way just in time to avoid getting seriously hurt.

Nearing the Gate, _Inao_ turned and hurled his knife at the guard whose shots managed to graze Teal'c's leg and Sam's arm. The weapon flew through the air with perfect precision and hit the man's forehead - with its _handle_, knocking him unconscious. Daniel sprinted the last few meters to the DHD, dived behind it and began punching in the combination for the Alpha Site upside-down, hiding behind the device as much as possible.

The others took cover behind the Gate's platform. As the Stargate roared to life, they all moved; Cam and Sam made it while the two zats provided cover fire. Vala and Teal'c moved next, firing continuously to give Daniel time to reach the Gate, then they stepped through when he was two meters away. Daniel saw a blast heading for the spot where they disappeared. He dived...

...and arrived rolling through the Gate at the Alpha Site, the staff blast passing over everyone's heads and slamming into the wall leaving a nasty scorch mark. Sam yelled, "close the Iris!" and the trinium slammed shut followed by a few thuds as the Gate shut down. Daniel got to his feet. They had made it.

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P.S.: So... you like extra long chapters, yes? I hope you do! I know it may have been confusing for those who still don't know what I'm talking about, but don't worry, explanations are next.

And don't be too afraid of this Daniel/Inao thing. Inao's not that different from Daniel. It may seem strange, but that's what he's the most afraid of: that his friends will have a hard time understanding that he's _still the same person_. After all, he couldn't have been acting for 11 years, could he? Don't worry, he'll still be our Daniel... mostly. (grin) You'll like Inao. Just wait for him to fully appear. It may take some time though...

Please tell me if you liked this!


	5. Debriefing

Chapter 05 - Debriefing

They got a few curious glances when the staff of the Alpha Site saw SG-1 returning with absolutely no gear, with small staff weapon burns and, in Daniel's case, a big hole through the shirt. Even though it wasn't unusual for SG-1 to return in a variety of methods, still they had to brush off the questions and avoid the med techs in the Alpha Site Gateroom.

When they arrived at the SGC, General Landry walked up to them. "SG-1, thank God you're here. We've been trying to contact you for the past three hours! We received some ineresting intelligence and we've been afraid you walked into an Ori ambush." He paused and looked at them curiously as he realized something was missing. "By the way, where's your gear?"

"Well sir, it was an ambush all right, and our gear isn't coming back any time soon..." Cam scratched his head. "We, uh... managed to escape... barely. We came back through the Apha Site." The Colonel raised the lone GDO in his hand to prove his point, wincing as the motion pulled at the small burn on his side.

"All right, get checked out in the infirmary. Have those burns treated." Landry said, concerned. "Debriefing in one hour."

"Excuse me, sir..." Daniel raised his hand and stepped forward. "I, uh... can we wait with my exam until after the debriefing? I can assure you I'm perfectly healthy... But there's something I need to explain. I would also like to request that Dr. Lam and... General O'Neill attend the briefing too." Daniel carefully kept his voice low as he spoke quickly to the General; the less people realized something was off, the better.

Landry gave the archeologist a long, questioning look, lingering on the hole in his T-shirt, then looked at Mitchell. "I would prefer it if you all were checked out. Even if you feel healthy, there's no way to tell what you could be carrying if you met a Prior."

"Trust me, sir, he's right. It would be better if you heard what Jackson has to say first. And we haven't even met a Prior, just some villagers with staff weapons." Cam tried to emphasize his point without telling anything. He _so_ didn't want this to end up on the base's grapevine!

Landry sighed. "Very well. I hope it's really important enough to have the Odyssey beam Jack here. Dismissed."

"Thank you, sir. I can assure you, it's important enough." Daniel expressed his gratitude with is eyes. The General got the message and nodded before exiting the room.

The members of SG-1 left the Gate room, four of them going to the infirmary while Daniel headed for the locker room, which was thankfully empty. Tossing his ruined shirt into the bin, he took off the rest of his clothes and stepped under the shower, turning the water as hot as it would go, not just to wash away the blood, but to calm his nerves. The water seared his skin red, but he welcomed the distracting pain, and it healed instantly anyway.

Daniel sighed letting his head drop. He had one hour to figure out how to explain his life to his friends. He would have preferred if he didn't have to tell Landry, but that was unavoidable. Even if he could somehow convince them that it was enough if Jack knew (after all he was Landry's superior officer), he would still have to tell Lam, and she was the General's daughter. The new-old Immortal could just hope that he wasn't giving away all of the Immortals' secrets to the whole American military, and Landry would not report this to anyone. He didn't want the government to know about them, especially not how to kill them. But the only way to convince his friends to trust him may be to tell them the whole story... and he wanted them to trust him more than anything.

He stepped out of the shower. The place of the staff blast was still a little red on his chest, but it was fading - in a few hours, it would be completely gone. He dried himself and his hair with a towel, and suddenly he flashed back to a time when he had hair down to his waist - that took a lot longer to dry, especially because there were no hairdryers back then. The image shocked him: it wasn't the type of flashback or memory most Immortals had, but it was pretty close. He'd have to get used to that again, seeing as he didn't have them for eleven years now.

After Daniel dressed into clean BDUs, he hesitated a bit, then decided to put on the glasses he had in the locker for the moment. He didn't want to get other people's attention and he could adjust his vision to the corrective lenses easily, just like before.

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Daniel was the first to arrive in the briefing room. Instead of sitting, he paced wondering when he'd last been this nervous. He couldn't remember because the deliberately suppressed memories didn't want to obey. But he was pretty sure that although a few occasions came close, this was the worst of them all. Forcing a calm expression now was easy: Inao learned many useful things from his teacher. Unfortunately the technique didn't stop Daniel's nervousness, it just stopped people from seeing it. Taking his usual seat in the briefing room he took a deep breath in an effort to calm himself, but it wasn't working, tension in his muscles returned with a vengeance. _What's wrong with me?_

When Jack entered in green BDUs, if it wasn't for the abscence of patches Daniel would have thought he was back in time with Jack still a part of the SGC, it felt so natural to see him here. Looking his usual sleepy and grumpy self Jack waved his escort away.

"I swear to God, if he dragged me here on my day off to tell me about some rock he found, I'll do something I won't regret," Jack muttered to himself.

"Hello, Jack." Daniel waved.

The silver-haired man looked up, realizing that his friend was already there. He blinked a few times. "Daniel. What's up?"

Daniel gave him a wry smile. "Lots of things. But I can assure you, it has nothing to do with rocks."

"Nothing?"

"Nope. But I can also assure you... you would have been angry if I hadn't called you. Of course, you'll probably be angry anyway..." Daniel gave Jack a sad smile.

Jack immediately realized that the situation was serious. "Is something wrong?" he asked, concerned. Daniel was visibly tense and he was sitting here, alone. "Oh God. Did anybody...?"

"No! Nothing like that, everybody's fine." The idea horrified Daniel, knowing just how close they came to losing the whole team. "It's just... I've got something to tell you." _And I don't think you'll like it_, he thought to himself, looking back at the table, hanging his head low once again.

Jack looked at him speculatively, but didn't ask. He sat down just as the rest of SG-1 entered. They came in together and Daniel immediately knew that they had been talking about what happened. They greeted Jack and sat down, all of them looking at Daniel. They were followed by Carolyn - who seemed to be wondering what she was doing there - and General Landry.

"So... what's this all about?" Jack asked looking at everyone in turn. General Landry answered him.

"SG-1 just returned from their mission to P6X-023, where their objective was to convince the people of the village not to accept Origin. They have been gone for almost five hours when we received word from one of our operatives in an Ori village that every believer is under orders by the Doci to kill SG-1 ASAP. We tried contacting them for three hours and failed, then they came through from the Alpha Site with minor injuries and no gear, at which point Dr. Jackson refused to be examined, saying first he needed to explain something to all of us. So here we are. Dr. Jackson, would you care to explain what happened on that planet?"

Daniel stared at his hands clutched in front of him on the table, not ready to say anything yet.

Cam watched Daniel siletly for a moment before realizing the man wasn't ready to speak. With a quick look around the table he began in Daniel's place. "We arrived on P6X-023 and started walking towards the village, Verino, located nearly a mile away from the Stargate. We encountered no one on our way, but when we entered the village, we were immediately greeted by a man named Taler, who recognised us as off-world travellers and invited us to the visitors' hall."

"The village appeared to be an old Goa'uld-occupied settlement. Though it seemed to be of a medieval technological level, there were numerous Goa'uld devices used by the human population." Teal'c continued.

"Taler led us into the village. When we were almost at the main square, I heard a child say an Ori greeting, which led me to believe that it was a trap. I warned the others." Daniel said, still not looking up.

It was Sam's turn. "We were too deep in the village to turn back, and we knew if it was a trap the villagers would probably attack us - they were well armed with Goa'uld staff weapons and zats. We followed Taler into the building hoping to overpower him inside, but as soon as we entered, the door closed behind us and we were faced with two dozen staff weapons. We had no choice but to surrender. Their leader was a man, Khatar, the leader of Verino. We never saw a Prior on the planet."

"They took all of our gear and disintegrated everything. They were very well trained and thorough. We were led into a cell." Vala continued their bizarre story. "Khatar quite literally quoted the Doci - he said that in the name of the Ori, every believer had to try to kill SG-1 without hesitation. They called Daniel a traitor and said that he would be killed first. We were to be given 12 hours to think before we were executed. Said that the rest of us still deserved a chance to receive a pardon in the Ori afterlife." Vala's voice was slightly shaking while she spoke, but it was impossible to tell if it was from anger or because she was near tears again. Probably both.

Daniel looked up, tried to give Vala a reassuring smile, then resumed staring at his hands. _They will soon know..._ The thought alone was enough to tense him to the point where his muscles actually hurt.

Silence settled over the room as none of SG-1 wanted to speak next. Jack looked at each of them in turn, finally settling his gaze on Sam knowing she would say it if he asked her to.

"Sir," Sam's voice held awe with a tinge of confusion, or perhaps fear, "they shot Daniel in the chest." Her voice seemed to trail off in the end as though still not quite sure what had happened.

"What?" Jack asked sharply. He, Landry and Carolyn all turned quickly to Daniel, but he still didn't look up.

"They locked us in there, and he... he died about a minute later. And he didn't ascend. We thought he was dead for good this time..." the Colonel continued shakily, remembering what she felt in those seven horrible hours.

Mitchell took over, now appearing to study the grain of the briefing table. "We were fairly sure that we wouldn't get out either. We tried getting out from behind the bars, but we couldn't, and we knew we couldn't count on a rescue. Seven hours had passed when Jackson came back to life. There for a while it looked like lightnin' or electricity surrounded his body. It transferred to the bars as well - might have been what healed his wounds. Then he woke up and the lightning stopped." Cam had to force the words out. It felt extremely surreal saying it out loud.

Dumbstruck, Jack, Carolyn and Landry stared with trepidation.

"When Daniel Jackson woke up, he assured us that he was aware of what happened and that he will explain it once the danger has passed." Teal'c took up the narrative. "We have discovered that the electricity disabled the locking mechanism and we were able to break out of the cell and dispose of the guards. We succeeded in acquiring three knives and zats. Colonel Carter used one of them as an explosive to demolish the rear wall of the facility. We escaped the village through the narrow and abandoned streets, but our abscence was discovered as we were leaving the village. We were pursued, but we succeeded in reaching the Stargate. We traveled to the Alpha Site and immediately returned to the SGC."

Daniel was grateful to his team. They quickly summarised the mission, which gave him the best way to explain what had happened. And it wouldn't take much effort to keep most of the secret: it would be very easy to tell them only a little bit. The idea was _very_ tempting...

"Danny Boy? Care to tell us what made you Superman?"

Daniel would have laughed at Jack's tone if the matter hadn't been so serious. He sighed, took off his glasses, put them in his pocket and rubbed at his eyes. Then he finally looked up, meeting their eyes - it was essential that they understood the seriousness of his next request. "I need you all to promise me that what I'm going to tell you stays between us. You can't tell anybody. _Ever._ This is a huge secret, and who needs to know about it already knows. I'm going to tell you because I have to, and because you are my friends and I can't lie to you anymore. But I repeat, you can't tell_anybody_. Do I have your word?"

Everybody looked wary; they were not used to Daniel speaking like this... at least not to them. He usually reserved this tone of voice to situations when he knew he needed to slightly threaten or frighten his audience to get his point across.

Landry voiced his doubts. "Dr. Jackson, you know every mission report is read by a dozens in the Pentagon, there's no way I could keep..."

His objection was interrupted as Daniel looked at the General as earnestly as he could. "Please, General. We will have to alter the report, because if this gets out, it'll cause a big problem for a lot of people. This has nothing to do with the Stargate, or the military, or any government for that matter. They don't need to know about it, and if they did... it could be disastrous, believe me."

Daniel's whole posture radiated how much he needed them to believe him. This was no wide-eyed begging look; he was desperate, and determined. Everyone could see that. He meant it. Literally. His intense blue gaze looked each of them in the eye making them squirm. And those who have witnessed it were reminded of the lightning that danced in those eyes barely more than an hour ago.

Landry hesitated, then nodded. Looking around the table once again, Daniel saw the others acquiescence as they nodded. Once they promised, he could count on them, but they still didn't know what they agreed to. Worry was apparent on their faces and morbidly, Daniel suddenly wanted to laugh. Now he managed to make them nervous, too. But the emotion was gone as quickly as it came, leaving him a little dizzy and once again dreading what he had to do.

"Thank you." He stood up, trying to ready himself. "I also need you to keep an open mind, try to remember what we've seen out there. Don't interrupt, it'll be easier that way."

Again his friends nodded. Daniel took a deep breath and started his story, forcing himself to remain calm and rational.

"Some people are born different than others. For some time, they can live a normal life like anybody else, and if they grow old and die a natural death, they'll never know that they're different. But if they are killed before that, then that will be what we call their First Death. They die just like anybody else, but roughly half a day later, they wake up again and become Immortal. Immortals automatically recover from any injury or illness. If they're killed, they revive. And they're stuck forever at the age when they died their First Death, never growing old. There are many of them, some good, some evil, just like with mortals. They can live for thousands of years, but they can never have children. For the years you have known me, I've been a Pre-Immortal, so I could get injured like anybody else. But _this time_ I've been dead long enough to trigger my Immortality. The blue lightning you saw is called a Quickening. It's the life force of Immortals. This is what heals us, and with it, Immortals can sense the Presence of another Immortal or Pre-Immortal."

He stopped talking and took out a knife, cutting deep into his palm. The others watched, amazed, as the deep wound healed right before their eyes and Daniel wiped away the remaining blood. There was silence.

"So... you mean if I shot you, you'd wake up good as new?" Daniel rolled his eyes at Jack's attempt at humor but nodded.

"And there are more like you, Dr. Jackson?" General Landry felt absolute shock that this could exist on Earth. If this is not of an alien origin, then what could be causing it?

"Wow, Daniel, this is... do you know how this is possible? To think about an energy restoring life to a completely dead body, it's..." Trust Sam to look at the scientific side of everything.

"Medically impossible, I know." And Carolyn to be right there with her.

"But Daniel Jackson, this hadn't been you First Death. In fact, you have died several times if I remember correctly." Teal'c stating the obvious.

"Wait a minute, how do you know this? You said you were a Pre-Immortal and they didn't know about this." Cameron, looking at the practical side of things.

"So! All in all, life is too short, right darling?" Vala even clapped her hands together as she grinned her fake grin - a defense mechanism to protect her true emotions, to distract him from her eyes... but Daniel still saw it. The anguish she tried to conceal in the steel-gray depths felt like a knife in his heart. Somehow she already caught on to the true implications of this, while the others were still looking at the meaningless details. She already started to see what this could mean for them.

He closed his eyes hiding the regret.

"This is not something that can be explained scientifically. Many have tried and failed. And I wish I could say that I simply knew an Immortal who told me all this. I wish I could say I didn't know I was a Pre-Immortal. I wish I could say that this was simply the first time I've been dead long enough to trigger my Immortality, and ascension doesn't count because I didn't have a body which could have revived. But that would be a lie. There's more. What I told you is just the beginning of the story. I could leave it at this, you would never know that there's a lot more to it. But I... I want you to know the whole story now." His voice now took on a pleading note - he was fighting back tears. "Just please... try to understand. And when I finish, please try not to think so badly of me. But even if you do... You can't tell anybody. You already promised that."

He felt the increased tension in the room but didn't open his eyes.

"First of all, Immortals can be killed. If their body is completely destroyed by an explosion or something similar, or if somebody beheads them, they die permanently. When that happens, the Quickening of the dead Immortal is freed. It either goes back wherever it came from or it goes into the nearest Immortal, if there's one. When you receive a Quickening, you get all the other's wisdom, knowledge and power, their life force, really. That's why every Immortal has to be trained in swordfight, so if another Immortal attacks you to get your Quickening, you can fight back. This is called the Game. There are some rules. Every challenge has to be one on one, no one can interfere. And we can't fight on Holy Ground, no matter what people consider it sacred, it's a refuge to any Immortal. They say that "the time of the Gathering will come, when all of the remaining Immortals are drawn to a place where the final battles will be fought, and _in the end, there can be only one_." The Immortal who wins the final duel will have the power of every single Immortal that ever lived. The winner gets the Prize. We don't know exactly what the Prize is, but that's why the good ones of us fight too: because if someone evil wins, he will most likely have enough power to rule the world forever. And that would mean an eternity in darkness for every mortal. So we all fight to ensure that won't happen."

"That was the global bad news, now comes the personal bad news." Daniel sighed. "I don't know how to tell you this. When... when we opened the Gate and went to Abydos, and I jumped in front of Jack to save him, I knew I would survive. I was already Immortal back then, you see. Older Immortals can control their Quickening, to appear to have a weaker Presence or to revive more slowly or quickly if they want. While on Abydos, I suppressed my Presence and my Quickening as far as I could, because I didn't like to think what Ra would have done to me if he discovered I cannot die. I was afraid of becoming an alien experiment, I wanted to escape and save Jack in the process, so I figured if I jumped in front of him and held back my Quickening as hard as possible, then I'd save his life, and hopefully they'd toss my body out somewhere, so when I revived later, I'd be alone and free to go."

"But I didn't count on the aliens having a device that can bring someone back from the dead. The sarcophagus... somehow it interfered with my Quickening. They put me in it while I was still dead and my Quickening was suppressed, and it made that state permanent somehow. My Quickening was stuck inside me. It basically reverted me to a Pre-Immortal state. I was mortal again, and I couldn't be sure if it completely erased my power or if it would all come back the next time I died. I didn't know if I was a mortal or a Pre-Immortal, or maybe something else entirely. So I tried to forget it. I pretended I was mortal. I tried to live a normal life, and waited for the time when I was dead long enough for something to happen... or not. And it happened now. When I died today, I realized that I had three choices: dying completely, ascending or becoming Immortal again. I chose to come back to you."

Daniel still didn't open his eyes. The silence was deafening.

"Please, just... ask the question." He finally raised his head and looked Jack in the eyes, choosing him to ask.

"How old are you?"

"I am four thousand years old. I was born in Egypt in the Bronze Age. My real name is Inao. I'm an expert swordsman, that's part of the reason why I lived so long, but I haven't practiced in the last eleven years, not since I decided to be and live as Daniel Jackson. I've had many names, many friends, wives, adopted children, professions... I've had many different lives over the millenia. But you're the best family I've had in a very long time, quite possibly the best. And I don't want to lose you, any of you. I know you're upset that I didn't tell you but I hoped I wouldn't have to, that I will _never_ be Inao again, that Daniel Jackson can be my last life and I can grow old and die just like normal people do. Just please don't think that you don't know me at all. You _do_ know me. You know everything that really matters. Please forgive me."

Daniel stood staring at his friends, his family, watching their astonished expressions. What were they thinking? Panic assaulted him and he suddenly felt the need to escape their looks. Chaotic thoughts, flashes of his old memories and emotions coming to the surface, not to mention the half-finished regaining of his Quickening - all this suddenly flooded him, causing him to stagger back a few steps. He opened his mouth to speak but his voice didn't want to obey him and in the end, he just turned and ran. At the top he forced himself to calm down to be able to sign out. He walked fairly calmly to his car, got in and drove home, keeping his mind completely blank. Not bothering to close the door as he entered, instead he went to his living room and plopped down on the couch. At the sight of the swords on his wall he finally broke down in tears, burying his face in his hands as he tried to sort through all the feelings coursing through him: the physical pain and disorientation caused by the forcibly restrained energy within him, the unidentifiable and irrational remembered feelings, but most importantly, the what-ifs about his family's reaction and the overwhelming fear of losing them because of what he is.

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P.S.: Thanks for the very kind reviews!!! And... I'm really sorry! The thing with holidays is that you always think that you have so much time and you plan to do absolutely everything, then you end up doing almost nothing because you always think you have so much time left. At least that's what happens to me all the time. Sorry! Let's hope the next chapter will be quicker...

But hey, the "feline has left the container" as Teal'c would say! The crossover is "Highlander", which was originally a movie, then they made it a series (then a second series and a few other films.) Sounds familiar? Go rent the original movie now! It's really worth watching, I watched it with my whole family including my 14-year-old brother.

There are actually quite a few SG/HL crossovers out there. You all know why... Daniel's the perfect candidate to be an Immortal! One story was written by Shannon K - this was the first one I've read, and incidentally the longest and best as well. This was the story that actually made me watch Highlander! Before this, I only knew the basics of the story. Both it and the ongoing sequel can be found in my favorite stories list. The other story I'll mention was written by Shadewolf7. It's not yet finished but it's what gave me the way to make Daniel an old Immortal without going AU! Cos this isn't an AU, at least not yet. It'll only be that when the movies come out... :D That story is in my favorites, too. Shadewolf7, Shannon K - big Thank You to both of you!!!!

Even bigger Thank You to spacegypsy1. I think the way she's betaing is actually starting to teach me how to write! Thank you!!!!!!

So why are you still here? Go watch the film now! (If you can. Briar told me it's rated R. I honestly didn't know!) Oh, sorry, you mean you want to review first? OK, I can take that. Quickly write down what you think (please!) then off you go :DDD


	6. A Call For Help

Chapter 06 - A Call For Help

The silence was deafening in the briefing room. The first shock wasn't over yet: the seven stunned people were trying to figure out what to think of... _this_.

"Four thousand." Shaking his head slightly as if to clear it was all Landry could manage. But it was enough to break the ice.

"I can't see how that's possible." Carolyn sat back and crossed her arms. After all, she was still a pretty down-to-earth person.

"Fighting with swords. For cryin' out loud, I had to teach him how to hold a gun! But to cut people's heads off? No way." Jack couldn't believe it. It just wasn't possible.

"We saw him throw a knife on the planet. Both him and the target were running, and he was dead on." Sam revealed, wondering what else will come to light.

"Wait a minute." Cam raised his hand, signaling he wanted to speak. "The guy just told us he was four thousand and he actually asked us not to think that we didn't know him at all?" _What's the two years I have known him compared to four thousand?_ Cam wondered.

"Indeed he did, because he anticipated that would happen. We should consider that we really know him. Not the person he used to be, but the person he is now." Teal'c looked around to see if they got his point. He remembered the 50 years they spent on the Odyssey together. Teal'c was certain the last ten years hadn't been an act: one couldn't act for that long. And he was aware the others knew that, too. They just needed some time to realize it.

"I'm going after him," Vala said, standing up abruptly. 4000 or not, a person that devastated shouldn't be alone, especially not the man she loved. She strode to the door and stopped there to look at them meaningfully.

Teal'c stood up to follow her with Cam, Sam and Jack closely behind. The Jaffa turned back to look at the two remaining people. He alone knew how close a bond the team could form with General Landry and he was determined to see it happen - again. And the man also needed to reconnect with his daughter. "General Landry and Dr. Lam, I am sure you also want to understand the situation and I am convinced your presence will be welcomed."

After a moment of thinking Landry nodded and stood up, nudging his daughter to do the same.

Together they drove to Daniel's. Calling the Odyssey they discovered that his transmitter wasn't working. Sam was fairly sure that it was because of his healing ability: the electricity must have disabled the signal, too, like it disabled the lock. She wondered if it could have even pushed the alien object out of the skin.

When the augmented team arrived, they saw that the door was unlocked but the lights were off. However, a strange light was emanating from the living room. Rushing inside, the team realized it was the Quickening again: the lightning and sparks surrounding Daniel had already caused the lights to explode. The Immortal was lying on the sofa, his back arched from the intense pain, trying to get the power under control again. The others could only watch in awe and apprehension as all of the lightning seemed to strike him at once, disappearing into his body. Then Daniel collapsed back into the sofa, panting and muttering something in a language none of them had ever heard before.

Finally, when it seemed clear that the light show wasn't about to start again, Jack stepped to Daniel's side and carefully touched his shoulder to get his attention.

The reaction was instantaneous. In the blink of an eye, Inao sat up, caught Jack's wrist in a tight grip, twisted his "attacker's" arm behind his back and pulled him in front of himself as a shield. Jack stood completely still as Inao's wild and terrified eyes looked around frantically, obviously trying to understand where he was. It took a few seconds for him to realize that he was supposed to be Daniel Jackson, and he was in his apartment. Letting go of Jack he backed up a few steps, terrified that he almost hurt his friend... or ex-friend? He would certainly understand if none of them wanted to do anything with him anymore. It wouldn't be the first time... many even turned against him when they learned the truth. And on top of that, eleven years was the longest time Inao had ever kept his secret. If he kept it that long, he usually kept it forever.

"I-I'm sorry." Daniel stuttered, raising his hands while still breathing heavily.

Jack massaged his arm looking at his friend, shocked at his physical and emotional state. "What the hell was that about? Immortals have seizures or something?" he asked, trying to be his usual flippant self - and failing miserably.

But the attempt at humor still had the desired effect: Daniel chuckled weakly, plopping down to the sofa. He felt exhausted and devastated. "What are you doing here?" he asked in a weary voice.

"We're trying to make sure you're okay, darling, we're trying to understand what you told us, and we're trying to make sure we do know you like you said. But first of all, we're here to help. Because no offense Daniel, but you really look like you need it." Vala rattled all that off very quickly.

Daniel's head snapped up, and he looked at her, a sudden, hesitant hope in his eyes. In his present state of mind he didn't dare believe that they would try to understand, but as Vala smiled a nervous smile, and the rest of his friends nodded in agreement, all looking at him in concern, Daniel realized they were willing to listen to him, to believe him. He felt the huge weight on his shoulders getting a little lighter. This was all he ever wanted, what he subconsciously prayed for ever since making friends with this group of wonderful people.

"Thank you," he said after swallowing to hold back the tears that threatened to fall again. Then the pressure he felt inside reminded him of what just happened.

"So, what was that about? Didn't you tell us that the light show only comes if you need healing?" Cam asked, in essence repeating Jack's question.

"And if I take a head..." At this, his friends looked alarmed. "But this is a special case. Actually, Vala's right. I need help. You remember how I told you that my Quickening was suppressed until now?" They nodded. "And it was released on the planet when I died. All of four thousand years' worth of power suddenly coming to the surface. Even a simple Quickening can destroy the cars in the immediate vicinity of the beheading, and it can confuse and weaken the Immortal for a short time. If I had let those 4000 years come back all at once, it could have destroyed the whole village. But now it's in a half-suppressed state - the only thing keeping it in check is my willpower and that can't hold long." And just like that, Daniel's tone was all business again.

"So how can we help? There's no medical knowledge about this, not that I know of," Lam said.

Daniel shook his head. "As far as I know, there's no knowledge about this at all. This is the only time something like this has happened. You can't really help, except find me a nice big abandoned space where I can let it happen, and try to make me come back to myself afterwards. Actually..." he trailed off, thinking. "You might even need help for that. I'm probably going to be very confused, having all kinds of flashbacks, and while you DO know most of my personality," he looked up to see if they agreed or not, "you don't know my memories well enough to bring me out of those."

He appeared to be lost in thought, so Sam asked a question. "Then what do you want to do?"

"I need the help of an old friend. I have to call him now; there's not much time. I thought I could keep it in check for a bit longer, but it seems I was wrong. Sam, please find me a nice abandoned place... somewhere in the middle of the Sahara will be fine." As Daniel spoke, he stood up with some difficulty and picked up his phone, which was luckily left intact by the Quickening. He dialed a number in Washington state which he had only used once before but had memorized. Meanwhile Sam, who was shocked at Daniel's strange request, looked at Landry for permission and when she got it she took out her cell phone.

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"It's Joe's, what can I help you with?"

"Hello, is this Joe Dawson?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"It's Daniel Jackson. I need to talk to Adam Pierson if he's available."

"He's not here right now. Do you want to leave him a message?"

"Yes please. Tell him I need the Old Man's help because of the thing we talked about when we last met. Tell him it's extremely urgent."

"Oookay, I got the number. I'll tell him as soon as I can."

"Thanks."

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Duncan MacLeod - of the Clan MacLeod, born in 1592 in the Highlands of Scotland, usually called the Highlander - watched as a puzzled Joe Dawson - mortal, blues bar owner, Vietnam veteran and Watcher, part of a secret society of men and women who observe and record the history of Immortals - put down the phone. Joe puzzled was a rare sight, and it usually didn't mean anything good.

"What's up? Anybody I know?" Duncan asked, leaning against the counter.

"No, uh, actually... they were looking for Methos. A Daniel Jackson. He said he needs his help. Nobody ever calls for Methos' help. Actually, if anybody suddenly turns up, it's usually something to do with you, not him." Joe looked sideways at his friend, who looked younger than him but was actually eight times older.

"Wait a minute, he actually asked for Methos?" the Highlander asked, straightening. "Do we know anybody who knows who he is?"

"Well, he didn't say 'Methos', just 'Old Man'. But he said it was urgent."

"Well, then call him!" Duncan said.

"Call who?" a voice asked just as Duncan felt a Presence, and Methos walked in. "Who's the unhappy soul in trouble this time?" the Old Man asked, seeing their faces.

"You are." the aging barkeeper answered.

"Oh." Methos sat down - or, more accurately, sprawled - on a bar stool. "Why is that?"

"You have a message. A Daniel Jackson called and he said he needed the 'Old Man's' help urgently because of something he told you about when you last met. The number's here. So who was it and how does he know Adam Pirerson is Methos?"

Methos seemed shocked. "Uh... it can't wait, not even a minute. I have to call him. Sorry." He got out his cell phone and quickly dialed the number.

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"Daniel... are you sure that was a good idea?" Jack asked.

"Positive. I need his help."

"And even if they can get hold of him, how are we going to get him? Where does he live? We can't exactly go there and beam him out, you know", Jack protested.

"He lives in Seacouver, Washington state. And we'll _have to_ go there and beam him out, because if not, there are gonna be problems with calming me down after the four thousand years' worth of flashbacks I'm gonna have. He's my oldest friend, the one that knows me best, not just the personality but the memories as well." Daniel knew he was probably causing them more pain with his words, but he didn't know what else to say to convince them. And he was afraid of what was going to happen to him. Not just afraid, but freaked out. The thought of having to relive his memories, even with his friend's help, made him shudder.

He was saved by the phone's ringing; he quickly answered it.

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"Hello, it's Daniel Jackson."

"Is that you, Inao?"

"Yes, thank God I could reach you, Methos! Listen, do you remember our last meeting?"

"Yes...?"

"Well, I was right. I've just had my 'Second Death' as you put it. It's gonna get ugly, all of the Quickenings I ever took coming back at once. I bet it'll be a spectacular sight... And I'm gonna need your help after I get everything back."

"Uh-oh. Can you get clear of any settlements in time? Because if you're still staying in Colorado Springs, it's gonna take time to find a place, and it's gonna take even more time for me to get there..."

"Well, there's not much time, but I can get anywhere in a few minutes. You'll see. But I'll have to explain to my friends how you know about the Stargate, they take confidentiality very seriously... I've already told them I'm four thousand."

"Then go ahead, I trust you know what you're doing. Can I tell my friends about you in turn? They're nosy bastards who always want to know what's going on."

"Funny. Go ahead, but don't say anything about the Gate. I'll meet you in Seacouver Park in about half an hour, okay?"

"Right. Be careful."

"Bye."

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The others listened with confusion as the conversation shifted to a completely foreign language after the first sentence, probably the same one Daniel was speaking earlier. His friends watched him closely. It was clear that he was happy to speak to his 'oldest friend', but the conversation was short, and Daniel looked up at them repeatedly. He seemed tired, but he was smiling.

"So, who's this old friend of yours, darling?" Vala asked the question that was going through their minds.

Daniel scratched his head. "Well, his name is Methos, currently going by the name Adam Pierson. He's the oldest one of us - he can remember back slightly more than five thousand years, and he might be a lot older than that, but nobody knows. He's lived in Egypt at that time. Of course, you know what this means..."

After a moment of confusion Teal'c seemed to catch up. "That means he had been there when the Stargate was buried."

The rest of them gasped at the realization.

"Yes, he was nearby. When I first got back from Abydos, after the year I spent there, I went to him. I figured he might know something about my problem. He didn't, but he did know about the Gate. So I told him what happened, and he told me to call if I need him. And so I did."

"Dr. Jackson, are you saying that you gave away classified information to..." Landry started, but Daniel interrupted.

"To one of the biggest secrets on this planet. Only a handful of Immortals know that Methos, the Oldest Immortal is not just a legend. He likes it that way - you see, the older you are, the more likely it is that headhunters go after you to get your Quickening. But nobody hunts for a myth. So please don't use his name when it's possible that anybody else can hear it. He's a secret, but this means you can also trust him to keep any other secret too. He didn't speak about the Goa'uld to anybody for 5000 years, why should he start now?"

"You got it. Wait a minute, headhunters?" Cam asked, thinking how bizarre a word that is.

"Yeah, that's what we call Immortals who go out looking for a fight. They're usually the young ones, still enthusiastic about the Game and the Prize... anyway, I told Methos we'll be meeting in the Seacouver Park in half an hour. That's how long we have to change clothes and get beaming coordinates."

They all looked at him in surprise, obviously not expecting to be asked to tag along. Smiling, Daniel looked around at his friends. "Hey, I know you want to understand what's going on, and that includes being there for this. You can never fully understand what Immortality is, and you should be happy about that, but maybe this'll help you a bit."

Jack ans Sam exchanged eye contact, both conveying how strange it seemed the way Daniel or Inao or whatever he wanted to be called changed his mood every few minutes or so.

For Vala, it was a relief seeing him smile at last and she smiled back. And none of the others complained. It was obvious to everyone that what he said made sense.

"Will you be all right alone?" Sam asked as she pulled out her cell phone.

"For the fifteen minutes it'll take you to change and beam back for me? Thanks, I think I can manage."

Nodding, Sam punched in a number on her cell phone and they were beamed away. Inao sighed. That went easier than he expected. He quickly changed into as comfortable clothes as possible, with nothing metallic, not even buttons. Taking the long, light brown coat from the wardrobe he quickly put it on as his eyes fell on the swords on the wall. He stepped in front of them, raised his hand and touched one of them reverently. He lifted it off its hook, gave it a few experimental swings, then he put it in his cloak where it vanished completely from sight, hiding between the folds and creases. He sat down and waited.

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P.S.: Yeah. I disappeared from the face of Earth for a while. The only thing I can say is that I'm sorry and I promise that I will always update sometime... Though it might take months as you just experienced.

So, how many of you took my advice and rented Highlander? Please tell me! And those that don't know the show please warn me if things aren't clear. And those who know it can tell me if I'm writing those characters right!

If anyone's interested, I have a few videos you could watch. Just go to YouTube and type in "Highlander season 6 intro" and you'll already have an idea what it it about. You can watch other intros, too, but I suggest this because this one has Methos in it. Anyone recognize him? Yep, he's the Peter Wingfield who played the Goa'uld Tanith in a few SG-1 episodes. I can tell you he's a lot better as Methos! If you like, you can also type "Methos" to get videos about him. Just scroll down a little, I recommend "Golden Years" and "Methos & Joe". If you watch the latter and the intro, you'll have a pretty good idea about the three HL characters I mentioned in this chapter. And it's a laugh! I've watched these when I haven't seen a single HL episode yet and I still enjoyed them.

I forgot to mention in the last chapter that the first story I've read that mentioned Highlander was actually Maureen Thayer's "Bitter Consequences". Though they were only joking about it, I loved that scene (I just about rolled on the floor laughing) and the idea stuck in my head. Then I forgot about it and I just remembered when Maureen and I exchanged a few letters. Link to her site is in my profile, go read that story :D One of my all time favs and it was about the third fanfic I've ever read.

Thanks for reading and please review!


	7. Old Man

Chapter 07 - Old Man

As Methos ended the call he looked at his friends. They stared back with open curiosity. He waited casually. If they didn't ask, that was their problem.

"Well, guys, it was really nice chatting with you but I gotta get going. Have a rendezvous in half an hour." He picked up his long black coat and turned to leave, smiling inside. He _so_ knew who'd speak next and what.

"Hey! Are you going to tell us or what?"

And there came that irritating Scottish accent. Methos turned. "What?"

"Oh, come on, Methos! You know we're dying of curiosity here. Aren't we Joe?" Duncan asked looking at their Watcher friend.

Joe just shrugged. "If you say so, Mac."

"Hey, don't do this, we're supposed to be friends, remember? I know you want to know too." The Highlander turned his chocolate brown eyes on Joe and did his best wide-eyed begging look.

"Oh, all right." Joe gave in, putting down the rag he was using to polish the counter's surface. "I gotta admit it's a bit strange, someone calling you, Old Man. You're not that big on keeping in touch with old friends, and if somebody does turn up, they usually don't ask for your help."

"Hey, Kronos came for my help! Though it's true that he didn't exactly _ask_..." Methos trailed off before they could get into the topic more deeply. It remained a sore spot.

"Come on, tell us," Joe asked, and he pushed a bottle of the best beer he had towards the Oldest Immortal. Methos grabbed the bottle and uncapped it with an expert's ease. He sighed after drinking. Well, he was going to tell them anyway.

"Inao is a very old friend of mine, he's four thousand to be exact, and I've known him for almost that long. He got into some serious trouble and he needs a friend's helping hand. Now, don't worry, none of us is in any danger, he'll just need a little consolation, that's all. He'll be fine."_Yeah right. And aliens exist and this is their fault and I'm gonna have to help him relive all of his memories while trying to hold on to his sanity. Everything's just perfect,_ Methos thought bitterly. This was gonna be a tough ride for both of them.

Mac and Joe looked dumbstruck.

"Are you telling me that there's a 4000-year old Immortal we never even heard of?" The shocked disbelief was evident in the grey-haired man's voice. OK, it was fine if the rest of the Watchers didn't know _where_ the Oldest Immortal was, but to completely miss a 4000 who probably is the second oldest now? Jeez...

The Old Man just smiled. "He's very good at hiding, he learned from the best. Maybe I'll tell you more... after I came back. But maybe you'll be able to ask him how he did it. I want to make him visit after this is over, cause we sure have a lot to catch up on."

Duncan nodded even while his mind was starting to buzz with questions. Was this true? Did Methos really have a 4000-year old friend? Did someone exist who knew the _real_ Methos? Because if they had known each other for almost 4000 years, then this Inao had known him when he was with the Horsemen... God, Duncan really hoped this incident wouldn't be similar to that one. He shuddered at the thought.

"Anyway, I really gotta get going. I don't know how long this is gonna take but be prepared for a guest," Methos said, not even bothering to ask. He rarely asked for anything. He drank the last of his beer, said goodbye and left.

"So what now?" Joe asked after a short silence.

Duncan shrugged. "I'm gonna humor him. He said he won't be in any danger and he'll be back in a few days with his friend. I can wait that long." He hoped. But at the very least, he could count on the Old Man to keep himself safe. There was no doubt about that. It's what Methos did best.

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Vala reappeared in Daniel's house wearing casual clothes and holding a radio in her hand. She smiled at him a little too brightly, trying to hide her nervousness.

"Hi darling, the others are already upstairs! I came to beam you up. Shall we go?" she asked, holding her arm out with hand open. He stood up and took it. Sensing how tense she was, he guessed at her problem. He raised his other hand and gently nudged her chin to make her turn towards him. Vala looked up, right into his eyes. He was smiling, though a little sadly.

"I meant what I said, Vala."

"What?" Vala asked, trying to pretend she didn't know what he was talking about.

"That I love you. That hasn't changed." Daniel's voice shook slightly with the fear that this was only going to cause them more hurt, but he couldn't take it back now. He didn't want to.

She nodded, casting her eyes downwards. "And I meant what I said, too. I love... Daniel, and I'm willing to listen to Inao. But it hurts, and I don't understand yet. But I will. I can promise you that."

That was more than Inao dared to hope for, but it still hurt. He gave her another sad smile and nodded. Maybe one day she would realize they were one in the same.

"You okay?" came the inevitable question from Jack as the two took solid form.

"I'm fine," Daniel said, then, seeing their expressions he added, "for now, anyway. Do we have the beaming coordinates?"

Sam nodded. "There's a place in that park where we can safely beam in. There's already a life sign nearby so we should find your friend easily."

"That's good. Uh, listen..." Daniel hesitated. "It'd probably be better if only one of you came with me. Six or seven people comig to get him would be a little intimidating, he doesn't trust easily." _Heh. Isn't that the understatement of the year?_

"I'll go," Jack said without hesitation. Daniel nodded, relieved. Jack was the best choice - Daniel had already told Methos about Jack when he visited the Old Man after Abydos. And as the highest-ranking officer, Jack could legally assure Methos that they could be trusted not to tell anyone about Immortals. Plus he had a feeling that the two men would like each other if they could get over their initial mistrust... which was likely to be strong.

Jack stepped forward, put his hand on Daniel's shoulder and they appeared in a sunlit park in the shade of a tree. They looked around.

"Sam's map said he's that way,'" Jack pointed taking off to their right. Daniel followed, but after a few steps he gasped in pain, clutching his head. He fell to his knees as the feel of a Presence in his brain strenghtened. He didn't remember it being quite so painful so it must have been because of his messed-up state. The feeling was enough to weaken his hold on his Quickening and the lightning started to appear around him forcing Jack to step back.

"Daniel? Tell me how to help! Focus a little. Come on!" Jack urged his friend.

As the Immortal came closer the strong signal of an approaching presence faded. As usual, he still felt the other Immortal but it was only a vague awareness. Inao looked up just in time to see Methos step out from behind a hedgerow. The sight of him led to flashbacks, images of him changing with dizzying speed, faster than he could follow, each image sending waves of different emotions coursing through him. The lightning of his escaping Quickening increased, but even as he started to lose focus of where and _when_ he was, the alien Presence weakened, giving him a little relief.

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Methos walked around Seacouver Park, trying to look like he wasn't pacing. He knew he was a few minutes early but he couldn't help himself - he was worried. What happened to Inao shouldn't have been possible. It went against all he'd known for five thousand years. Immortals were above the laws of science. No manmade device was able to give someone Immortality, so no device should have been able to take it away from an Immortal, either. It was unnatural.

Then again, they probably shouldn't have played with fire. Maybe learning to control their Quickening had been a mistake. It's true they only did it with the power of their mind, through meditation, but still, restrained power could always find a way to break its bonds and strike back. That's why they used it only when absolutely necessary, but lately, this had saved Methos so many times. Sometimes the ability to make himself seem weaker was the only thing that protected his identity. Without it, he might not be here now. But alien devices capable of messing with a Quickening...? It was usually the other way around. Quickening affecting electronic equipment, not vice versa.

The Old Man relaxed, completely letting go of the control to expand his senses and feel in advance when Iano arrived. In this state, he was able to sense things from quite a distance, so he knew he would feel Inao before the younger man felt him.

He didn't take into consideration the means of transport his friend arrived by.

The sudden appearance of a Presence nearby threw him a little off-guard. Shocked, Methos quickly recovered his senses. He could have recognized Iano's Presence anywhere, anytime - that wasn't such a rare ability. If two Immortals knew each other well they could recognize the other's signature if they payed enough attention. Even younger ones had been known to do that. But what he felt now was unlike anything he ever felt from Inao. Unlike the almost undetectable signature of a weak Pre-Immortal that he sensed when Inao came to him ten years ago, this was a dual Presence. Similar to feeling a new Immortal and an ancient at the same time, but but now he felt as if the ancient was far, far away. The duality screamed of tension - as if a seastorm wanted to rage in a small mountain lake.

The Old Man rushed round the corner to find Inao on his knees, trying to stop the Quickening escaping his body. Methos quickly suppressed his own Quickening, knowing that the feel of it couldn't have done anything good to his friend. He barely even glanced at the mortal who was trying to calm Inao from a few steps behind, instead he shouted at Inao in their own millennia-old language. "Inao, look at me! Remember, you know how to control this! Remember how we did it together, how we meditated!"

Electrified blue eyes looked up at Methos, desperately trying to focus on him in the present. That voice and language managed to get Iano's attention away from the torrent of memories and he grabbed hold of it to avoid giving in to the power coursing through his mind and body.

"Calm!" Came the order in Methos's voice.

Inao closed his eyes and his breathing slowed.

"Focus!"

An expression of intense contrentation filled Inao's features as he felt every bit of energy inside of him and around him trying to get loose. He had to be aware of everything if he wanted to succeed.

"Control!"

And Inao pulled everything that managed to escape back into that little corner of his mind again. The lightning bolts again seemed to strike him and then disappeared inside of his shaking body.

Methos smiled, relieved. He was proud of Inao who now toppled to the ground, exhausted from the effort. The dual feel of him was almost gone, only Methos's time-sharpened senses could feel how big the problem still was. They really didn't have much time.

Jack rushed to his friend's side in an instant. "Daniel?" he asked, concerned. "How are you?"

"I'm fine now, Jack," Inao managed to croak. "Just help me sit up."

Methos watched as this friend of Inao's, Jack, did as he was asked. He assumed this to be the same Jack Inao had told him about ten years ago. A Colonel in the Air Force, and it seemed a very good friend by now - if he was the one who accompanied Inao to meet Methos.

Jack pulled the gasping Daniel into a sitting position. When the exhausted man finally seemed to get himself together enough to open his eyes, he saw the Old Man standing a few steps away.

"Methos!" Inao exclaimed with a sudden, wide smile on his face. He quickly got to his feet with some help from Jack and, stepping forward, they enveloped each other in a hug. Methos couldn't stop the happy, relieved laughter. He really missed the kid. Ten years was an extremely short time by their standards but this was a special situation. Knowing what he faced and, on top of that, as a mortal... The Old Man had to admit he had been really worried about his slightly younger friend.

In all honesty, Methos thought this would have happened sooner. He had faith in Inao's abilities, but he didn't think he'd survive ten years as a mortal going to Goa'uld planets with a military unit... It boggled the mind. When his friend was reported missing-in-action five years ago he'd awaited the call and when it didn't come, not even for a year, he feared the worst: that Inao died and their theory was wrong, he wasn't Pre-Immortal. But a year later he was reported found and he still didn't call Methos. He'd have to ask him about that...

But right now his best friend and chosen twin brother shivered violently, despite the huge grin on his face when he stepped back a little to look at Methos properly. The Old Man didn't mind the chance to look at him either... and his jaw dropped.

"Bloody hell, Inao, you look older!"

"Well, what did you expect, Methos? I certainly wasn't going to get any younger," Inao lauged. Methos rolled his eyes. Intellectually, he knew it would happen, but it was still strange to see the face that has been stuck at the age of twenty-three for almost four millennia actually looking ten years older - or more. It had to have been a really hard ten years...

Daniel turned to look at Jack, quickly becoming serious again. They had to get going because this trembling wasn't going to get better by itself.

"Jack, I'd like you to meet Adam Pierson, also known as Methos. Methos - General Jack O'Neill. The Colonel I told you about, and who has been my best friend ever since." And Daniel begged silently to anyone that would hear that Jack still was his friend. It seemed he got his wish by the look of relief and gratitude in Jack's eyes.

"General?" Methos said, offering his hand. Jack responded without hesitation and the two men sized each other up.

Jack nodded. "I take it you know about the Stargate," he stated sternly. He got a nod instead of an answer. Methos was hard to intimidate.

"So Inao, where do you want to get back your power? You'll need a nice, open space judging by the way your Presence feels..."

"Oh, I thought the middle of the Sahara is open enough, don't you agree?" he said sarcastically.

Methos blinked. "And we're getting there..."

"...Exactly the way we came. You're gonna like this. Ever seen Star Trek?" Inao asked, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

Methos seemed speechless. "Don't tell me..."

"One of our ships is standing by to 'beam us up' at our signal. A few other friends are waiting there who'll be coming with us." He made air quotes, forgetting for a moment how much his hands shook now.

"_One_ of your ships? I guess there are new things in the world after all... Maybe not under the sun, but above it." Methos couldn't believe this. Maybe he'll get some surprises, for the first time in a long time.

Jack watched the exchange with mixed feelings. He felt amused, relieved that a more than 5000-year-old man could still be so... human, and he felt a little jealous, too. Daniel almost never smiled anymore, and if he did, it was always a sad smile. But just a minute ago he was grinning like an idiot. Why was that?

On the other hand, his emotions all seemed more extreme than usual since this whole thing began. He didn't usually get to the verge of crying either and he didn't storm out of the briefing room, so maybe that could be blamed on this situation, too. Or maybe he was just playing being serious, and this was normal for him. Jack quickly dismissed that thought. He spoke to prevent himself from thinking.

"So, ready?" He got a nod from the man.

Daniel grabbed Jack's arm and indicated that Methos should get a hold of his. At the questioning look he explained. "The beam needs a signal to lock on to, and Jack's carrying the locator beacon."

"And... how does it feel?" Methos asked. Daniel gave him a half-smile.

"You don't feel anything but you can see the bluish-white flash of light if you pay attention."

"Carter? Three ta go!" Jack grinned at Daniel a little uneasily.

Before Methos could register what happened, the Seacouver park was replaced by a room. He quickly looked around. It looked decidedly like the bridge of a spaceship from a sci-fi movie. His jaw dropped at the sight, because on the other side of the huge window, there was something he'd seen almost every corner of, but never as a whole. Earth was drifting serenely above them, giving off a breathtaking blue light. The view was perfect. Nearly half of the planet was visible as they floated above - or below? - the Atlantic Ocean. The continent of America was completely sunlit while the east half of Africa was already covered in darkness. An incredible sight! For a moment he felt as if the reason he had lived this long was to see _this_. Shocked by the thought, he wondered why was this affecting him so much? _Because I just found a place to call __**home**_, he realized. He never had that before, not remembering the place of his birth, spending 5000 years living in different places... he never got more attached to one than the other. But now, faced with the planet he lived on and knowing that there were other inhabited planets, it suddenly was so clear. _Earth_, this beautiful planet, was his home.

The touch on his shoulder brought him back from his musing. Methos realized how many people were in the room and that they were all looking at him. Inao was smiling understandingly at him, his eyes conveying the same sense of wonder that he felt.

They stared at each other for a few more seconds before a spike of pain in his head reminded Daniel of what he should be doing.

"Uh, sorry. Introductions. Everyone, this is Methos, but please call him Adam Pierson when there's a chance that someone will overhear. Methos, these are my - Daniel Jackson's - best friends and colleagues. General Hank Landry, present leader of Stargate Command," Daniel indicated everyone one by one and they all nodded or said hi, "Dr. Carolyn Lam, the CMO of the base, and my teammates: Colonel Cameron Mitchell, Colonel Samantha Carter, Vala Mal Doran and Teal'c. Vala's not from Earth and Teal'c is..."

"Wait!" Methos interrupted. "don't tell me, I think I got it..." he thought for a minute, trying to remember. "You're a _Jaffa_, aren't you?" He smiled in wonder. "I remembered that by myself!"

"Indeed I am," Teal'c bowed slightly. "I am pleased to make your acquaintance."

Methos was just opening his mouth to say something when Inao interrupted. "Hey, you can save your questions for later, after I..." He trailed off. He started the sentence still smiling but now he tensed and genuine fear touched his eyes as he reminded himself of what was coming. "I-I think we should go now... I don't want to get an attack here and destroy the ship or something," he mumbled, looking completely dejected. He was clutching one of the chairs for support.

The others looked at each other, the same worry as Methos felt evident in their eyes.

Landry moved forward. "I'll send you all down. Carolyn and I will stay on board." And with another flash of light, they were gone.

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P.S.: (sniff) Sorry, I got teary-eyed just by imagining what I would feel if I saw Earth that way...

But hey, new chapter! I hope you like it. When I got a few messages that more of you added this story to you alert list, I got the message... you got tired of always checking back to see if there was a chapter, didn't you:) I hope the chapter was worth the wait. Sorry for making it a kind of a cliffhanger again but there are no other places in the story to stop... Please tell me what you think and if you're still here! And did _any_ of you watch those things I mentioned?

Thanks for reading!


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